Starting on Monday, fewer cargo ships coming from China have come. By the end of this week, it meant less work.
“Just today we had some north of 235 members who asked for work but couldn’t get it,” said Sardi Kontanza, Portliaison of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. “It’s beginning to manifest as a real loss of work and income from members.”
Dicontanza believes it is affecting part-time workers now, but fears it will soon affect full-time workers.
“At this point, it looks like it gets worse before it gets better,” Dicontanza said.
“These tariffs are hurting our Americans,” said Rep. Nanette Barragan, who represents the Port of LA.
Officials at North America’s busiest container ports said 136,000 local jobs are directly linked to Southern California ports in the LA and Long Beach area with 1.4 million jobs.
In Long Beach, the mayor said the port represents one in five jobs in his town.
“This will affect people like grocery stores and small businesses in our community in Long Beach,” said Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson.
“We are at the start of a serious supply chain crisis,” Rep. Robert Garcia, representing the port of Long Beach, warned naked shelves around the country. “Donald Trump has the ability to end this now. ”
“When you say (port traffic) has slowed down, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump spoke with reporters Thursday ahead of talks with China this weekend.
Trump said the slowdown is a short-term impact and hopes to have more profitable trade with China in the long run.
“We want China to open for competition in China,” Trump said.
Companies that are frequented by port employees are already beginning to experience short-term pain.
“Now there’s nothing,” said Sonya Medrano, whose food truck business has dried up near the port. “Down by 30% or 40%, etc.”
Union leaders said the port would directly and indirectly affect the employment of nine million people across the country linked to supply lines.
“You may feel pain and uncertainty first, but that will spread from here across the country,” Dicontanza said.
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